@hllizi Takeaway for other projects: make sure that the "governing structure" (access to keys, domains, and such) does not deviate too much from the group of people doing the actual work.
He’d been separate from the project for a good decade, only doing bureaucratic stuff (filing finances of the non-profit) and when he decided to get active again it was "this all sucks, we’re doing this new thing again" — without knowing what the project was capable of (when I showed him, that became clear).